BBC - A Sporting Nation - The first international football match The first international football match © SCRAN Twenty months after the first international rugby match between the two countries, the Auld Enemy met for the first official association football international match. Like its rugby counterpart, the match was played in Scotland on a cricket ground. Whilst the rugby match had taken place in the east, football looked to the west, and Hamilton Crescent, the West of Scotland Cricket Ground, was selected as the venue. Prior to the first official meeting, there had been several unofficial international matches played between the countries at the behest of the English Football Association. Such was their enthusiasm for these fixtures they arranged the venue, the officials, the selection of the English side and, incredibly, the selection of the Scottish side. For these matches, the "Scotland" team was assembled from players in and around London who had Scottish connections. In 1872 League Championships had yet to begin in either country. The FA Cup tournament had completed its inaugural running in England and the Scottish competition would start the following year. For the match on 30 November 1872, St Andrew's Day, the Scotland players were all selected from Queen's Park, the leading Scottish Club of its day.

This was not the original intention but the Scots were unable to obtain the services of two countrymen who had competed in the FA Cup final. Arthur F Kinnaird of the Wanderers and Lt Henry Waugh Renny-Tailyour of the Royal Engineers would have to wait until 1873 to play for their country. While Scotland was eventually represented by eleven men drawn from the Queen's Park club, England played the match with players from nine different sources selected by Charles Alcock the English Football Association Secretary and captain of the FA Cup winning Wanderers. Alcock, who was the driving force behind the unofficial matches, was unable to play in the first official meeting due to injury but he participated by running the line. Three England players came from Oxford University but only Reginald Welch played from the successful Wanderers side. Scotland wore dark blue shirts, the then colour of Queen's Park, with a single lion crest badge attached. England, in white, had the badge of the three lions on their shirts. © SCRAN The crowd who gathered to watch the match numbered 4,000 and they paid an entry fee of a shilling, the same price charged by the English Football Association for the first FA Cup final.

They endured a twenty-minute delay to the scheduled 2pm kick-off but then settled to watch the contest in the relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere that would accompany the fixture for over one hundred years before the wrong shade of partisan behaviour started to creep in during the 1970s. Rugby Football History 1870s A short Historical Back drop of Britain Irish Land Act gives rights to tenants 1870 Women obtain limited rights to retain their property after marriage 1870 Voting by secret ballot is introduced 1872 Tay Bridge collapses in gale force winds 1879 1870 Wanderers , Ireland formed. Burton Football Club formed and played both Rugby and Association football until 1876, when it adopted Rugby Union rules only. Civil service club formed. There were now 49 clubs in England (source: Alcocks Football Annual). These different clubs have different interpretations of the laws as played at Rugby School. November - an anonymous surgeon writes to 'The Times' complaining that Rugby football is dangerous. The need is felt to form a body to regulate the laws.

In December 1870 Edwin Ash the Secretary of Richmond Club published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play". This lead to a meeting in January and the formation of the RFU. The first rugby game in New Zealand between Nelson College and Nelson football club, played on 14 May 1870 (Auckland, Canterbury and Otago clubs develop the game there over the next several years). Credit for the introduction of rugby to New Zealand goes to Charles John Monro, son of Sir David Monro, Speaker in the House of Representatives from 1860 to 1870. Charles Monro, who was born at Waimea East, was sent to Christ's College, Finchley in England to complete his education at age 16 and while there he learned the rugby game. On his return to Nelson, age 19, he suggested that the local football club (Nelson) try out the rugby rules. The game must have appealed to the club members for they decided to adopt it.

Following this, he organized the first game in New Zealand between Nelson college and Nelson club at the Botanical Reserve, Nelson, on Saturday, May 14, 1870. The Nelson club won by 2 goals to nil (they played 18-a-side). A visit to Wellington by Monro later in 1870 resultedin him organizing a game between Nelson and Wellington. Mr Tennent wrote and challenged Mr Monro who organized some Wellington players who had been playing a mixture of Victorian and association rules football into a team. This match was played at Petone on 12 September and was won by Nelson by two goals to one. (note: Nelson played with 14 players against Wellingtons 13). In a letter to the editor of The Dominion (Wellington) and later published in that journal July 5, 1928 Monro wrote: "Mr Tennent was a member of the Nelson club, not one of whom had ever seen the Rugby game, which they adopted at my instigation, and played under my tutelage, until familiar with the rules. No credit is due to me in the matter. My introduction of Rugby to my native land was merely a coincidence of circumstances.

As a matter of fact, the first match at Petone was played in the same year that I introduced the game to Nelson. I made the whole arrangements, even to picking the Wellington team, since there was no football club there in those early days. It was Mr Tennent who wrote me asking if it could be possible to arrange the match, and he played as one of the team." 1871 26th January, The Rugby Football Union founded in the Pall Mall Restaurant in Regent Street, London to standardize the rules that also removed some of the more violent aspects of the Rugby School game. The meeting was initiated by Edwin Ash, Secretary of Richmond Club, who submitted a letter to the newspapers in the previous December which read: "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play". The 21 clubs that attended the first meeting chaired by the club captain of the Richmond Club, one E. C. Holmes, included Harlequins, Blackheath, Guy's Hospital, Civil Service, Wellington College, King's College and St. Paul's School which are still playing today.

Other clubs now defunct, or playing under other names, were the picturesquely named Gipsies, Flamingoes, Mohicans, Wimbledon Hornets, Marlborough nomads, West Kent , Law, Lausanne, Addison, Belsize park, Ravenscourt park, Chapham rovers and a Greenwich club called Queen's House. Many famous provincial clubs, founded before 1871, were not founder members of the Rugby Football Union, though, of course, they became members later; among these were Bath, Bradford, Liverpool and Brighton. Note: Belsize Park were disbanded in 1880 and many players joined Harlequins. A new Belsize club was founded in 1971. One famous name that was missing, though, was the London club Wasps. Somehow they managed to send their representative to the wrong venue at the wrong time on the wrong day but another version of the story was that he went to a pub of the same name and after consuming a number of drinks was too drunk to make it to the correct address after he realized his mistake. Algernon Rutter (of Rugby and Richmond) was elected the first president of the RFU and E.H.

Ash was elected treasurer. Other committee members were: R H Birkett (Clapham Rovers), F I Currey (Marlborough Nomads), W F Eaton (Ravenscourt Park), A J English (Wellington College), J H Ewart (Guy's Hospital), A G Guillemard (West Kent), F Hartley (Flamingoes), E C Holmes (Richmond), and F Stokes (Blackheath). Secretary & Treasurer: Edwin H. Ash (Richmond). The joining fee and the annual subscription fee for a member club were both set at 5 shillings. Other National Rugby Unions 27 March 1871: The first ever international game Scotland v England played at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, March 27th, in front of a crowd of 4000 (Scotland won by one goal and one try to one goal, the teams were 20-a-side and Halves were 50 minutes each). Scotland, who revealed better team-work, proved to be the fitter side and lasted the pace longer, but that was hardly surprising.

The English team had a hard night's travel on the Sunday on bare board seats in third-class carriages and the journey told against them. Incidentally, they all paid their own expenses in full. A. G. Guillemard, the English player, whose writings about the early days of the game exceeded in value even his services as a player and official - at various times he was Secretary, Treasurer and President of the Rugby Union - wrote several accounts of the game. In one of his accounts Guillemard wrote: "'The game was very keenly contested until half-time, after which the combination of the Scots, who knew each other's play thoroughly, and their superior training began to tell a tale. After a maul just outside the English goal line Dr H. H. Almond, the famous Headmaster of Loretto, who was one of the umpires (the other was A. Ward, England) ordered the ball to be put down in a scrummage five yards outside the line. The Scottish forwards, instead of putting the ball down, held it up off the ground and pushed our men bodily over the line and secured the touch. We admitted the try because they assured us it was a fair try according to Scottish rules.

At any rate, the honour of scoring it belonged to the whole Scottish front rank though it was Buchanan who actually grounded the ball and so had the distinction of being the first player to score in an international. W. Cross kicked the goal and in those days a goal was the vital score. 'Our first and only try in the match was scored by R. H. Birkett. We pinned the Scots near their own line for some time before Birkett ran in close to the corner flag. Stokes, our captain, failed with a long, difficult place-kick in the cross wind. The second Scottish try was also got in a peculiar and, in our view, an illegal way. A long throw-in from touch by a Scot went past our forwards and one of theirs literally fisted the ball over our line and W. Cross, racing after it from behind, touched it down, but his place-kick was unsuccessful. 'Cross, for Scotland, and J. F. Green and F. Tobin for us, played splendidly behind the scrummage.

Unfortunately for us Green, who was a brilliant runner, was injured in the match and never played again." Nearly all of the foregoing and much of what follows appeared in an article in a London newspaper some seventy years ago when Guillemard was interviewed by Hamish Stuart, a noted critic and perfervid Scot who was always completely unbiased and did not mind who a Scottish team defeated. 'Those early Association matches,' said Mr Guillemard, 'which you mentioned in your paper last week were the origin of international football, and it was a game under Association rules at the Oval, and given the title of England versus Scotland which brought matters to a head and resulted in the Scottish challenge in a paper called Bell's Life.' 'Like the Scots whose challenge was signed by F. Moncrieff (Edinburgh Academicals), J. W. Arthur (Glasgow Academicals), A. H. Robertson (West of Scotland), B. Hall Blyth (Merchistonians) and J. H.

Oatts (St Andrews University), and the first three eventually played against us, we too thought it farcical that the game at the Oval played in November 1870, with the Scottish team little more than a pick-up of players some of whom had never crossed the Border, should be described as an international. 'The popular code at the time in both countries was rugby so we formed a committee and approached Scotland on the matter. Fred Stokes was strongly urged by Luscombe of the Gipsies to accept the challenge. A reply to that effect was duly sent by B. H. Burns, the Blackheath Secretary, and so the match was arranged. 'Strictly speaking, the first game was not under the direct auspices of the Rugby Union. The Union was formed on 29th January 1871, and the only business done up to the date of the match in Edinburgh was to frame the bye-laws. 'While the Scots had held two trials of sorts, we had none and our men were picked on their club form. First Scot to play for England: Burns, a Scot of the Scots, had charge of the arrangements and it is a remarkable thing that he played for us.

How that happened is quite simple. He played as a substitute for F. S. Isherwood of Oxford University and Ravenscourt Park, a grand forward and our place-kicker, who failed to turn up. So Burns was, therefore, the first Scotsman to play for England, and he played just as well for the land of his adoption as he would have played for the land of his birth.' Burns is mentioned as having been an Edinburgh Academical yet his name is not given in the club records of its international players as one of those who played for another country. There are other noteworthy points. For instance, it seemed to be unusual that the international was played on a Monday, but that was apparently not unprecedented in those far-off days, for when Ireland first met England in a match at the Oval in 1875 it is recorded that the Irish team arrived in London at mid-day on the Sunday and the game was played the following afternoon. Then Colville of Merchistonians can be regarded as the first Anglo-Scot to be included in a Scottish team, for at the time of the match he was playing for Blackheath.

Regarding Scotland's goal which won the match, it seems that the score was not unquestioned and according to one account the Englishmen 'stoutly contested the legality of the try from which the goal was kicked. Some time later, Dr Almond referred to the disputed score and wrote: 'Here let me make a personal confession. I was umpire, and I do not know to this day whether the decision which gave Scotland the try from which the winning goal was kicked was correct in fact. The ball had certainly been scrummaged over the line by Scotland, and touched down first by a Scotsman. The try, however, was vociferously disputed by the English team, but upon what ground I was then unable to discover. I must say, however, that when an umpire is in doubt, I think he is justified in deciding against the side which makes the most noise. They are probably in the wrong.' The scores for Scotland were obtained by Angus Buchanan, from whose try W. Cross kicked a goal, but he was unsuccessful in his attempt to convert the second try which he scored himself. The English try was credited to R. H. Birkett, but F. Stokes, the English captain, was unsuccessful with the place kick.

England The first Scotland international side - 1871 Which rules/laws were applied? On March 25, 1871 the Glasgow Herald reported that the match would use the Rugby School rules with two minor alterations (both which were customary in the London area): 1. The ball, on going into touch, is to be thrown into the ground again from the spot where it crossed the line, and not where it first pitched into touch. 2. For a try at goal, the ball is brought out in a straight line from where it was touched down. (This would eliminate the alternative choice of punting it out after a touch down). In the London area there was a generally-observed rule that a player could gather up a ball whether rolling or bounding. Scottish clubs only allowed it in the latter case and this was agreed for the first international. England got their revenge in the return fixture the following year at the Oval. 22 June 1871 Along with the founding of the Rugby Football Union a committee was formed, and three ex-Rugby School pupils (Rutter, Holmes and L.J.

Maton), all lawyers, were invited to help formulate a set of rules, being lawyers they formulated 'laws' not 'rules'. Most of the work was done by Maton as he broke his leg playing rugby and was laid up so he attempted the first draft. He did this in Holmes' law chambers. This task was completed and the laws were accepted by the full committee on 22 June 1871, and brought into force by a Special General Meeting 2 days later. The laws outlawed the practice of hacking and tripping. (Wimbledon Hornets) The laws have changed a great deal since then and spawned other games, notably American Football and Australian Rules Football. Streatham club formed. Harrogate Club originally formed The first match, played on 16th December 1871, was played opposite The Coach and Horses on the area currently known as the West Park Stray. Harrogate fielded 16 players to Leeds 11. Harrogate lost the match. The result was Leeds one goal and five touchdowns, Harrogate 1 touchdown. Four brothers played in the match Frank, Fred, Tom and William Fawcett. This was the only game lost in the club’s first four seasons.

The club was reformed in 1923 after the original club became an association club in 1914. Birkenhead Park RFC formed. Birkenhead Park was formed from the emalgamation of two smaller clubs, Claughton and Birkenhead Wanderers during the 1871/72 season. Neath , the first Welsh club, formed by a Scotsman, Dr T P Whittington who also became the first international coming from a Welsh club when he played for Scotland in 1873. In New Zealand, the game became organized in Wellington and it had spread to Wanganui by the following year. Langholm Rugby Football Club formed, reputed to be the oldest Rugby Club in the Borders of Scotland. 1872 The first rugby club formed in France by British residents, Le Havre. The first club was founded in Germany by Students under the guidance of the teacher Edward Hill Ullrich at the Heidelberg Rowing Club - Neuenheim College - now called Heidelberg College (with Rugby Football in the winter time and rowing on the Neckar River in the summer time).

Heidelberger Ruderklub von 1872 (HRK 1872) is the oldest German rugby club. Cambridge, Llanelli (Wales), Swansea (Wales), Leicester, Clifton, Landsdown (Ireland) and Exeter clubs formed. William Webb Ellis dies a bachelor in Menton, France (see 1959) leaving 9,000 pounds to charitable causes incl. the society for the rescue of young women and children; and the residue to the widow of his brother Thomas. His tomb was rediscovered in 1958 by a local journalist, former rugby player Roger Dries and Ross McWhirter The first Oxford - Cambridge game played on 10th February. Oxford wins by 1 goal to nil. This fixture will become known as the 'Varsity' match. 23rd of November 1872 Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) played Glasgow Warriors in the first ever inter-district match against Glasgow in 1872, winning the match by a drop goal to nil (3–0). Glasgow Accies hosted the challenge match between Edinburgh and Glasgow at a pitch on Gt.

Western Road near St Georges Cross and within a stones throw of Firhill known as Burnbank. Ground Location Credit: Glasgow Accies RFC The match was played 20 aside and it was to be used in helping to select the Scottish team for their upcoming match with England early in 1873. Prime movers in the arrangements for the match were J W Arthur of Glasgow Accies and W Kidston of West, the former having been one of the signatories to the famous challenge letter sent to the clubs of England to meet the Scots under the rugby rules which led to the birth of international rugby in 1871. His cap from that match still remains on display at New Anniesland and is believed to be one of only two still in existence the other being in the RFU Museum at Twickenham. Both the Glasgow clubs that made up the team Accies and West were both members of the (Engish) RFU at that time as there was no Scottish Union That was soon rectified in 1873 at a meeting held in the Glasgow Academy then situated in Elmbank St and the Scottish Football (Rugby) Union was born.

The matches were played on a home and away basis up to 1876 when the match was significant as the first when tries were counted if the teams were equal on goals. Edinburgh Rugby were reformed in 1996 to compete in the Heineken Cup. Keenly competed 2011 1st leg held a Murrayfield ended in a 23 - 23 draw (Credit: BBC Alba) 1873 - Moseley, Gloucester, Rugby, Bedford Britannia, Carlisle, Carlow (Ireland), Dungannon (Ireland), Gala (Scotland) and Lansdowne (Ireland) formed. March 3rd - Scottish RFU formed. Around 5000 people watch Scotland and England draw 0-0 at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow. Across the city the Scottish Rugby Union is formed at a meeting held after the Scotland-England match. Auckland, New Zealand adopted Rugby. On October 19, 1873, representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York to thrash out the first set of intercollegiate rules in America.

By eliminating carrying and the use of hands they defined a game which was soccer in nature. Harvard, although invited, chose not to attend. This was notable since Harvard still needed someone to play against who permitted use of the hands (see 1874). 1874 UCC, Ireland founded. From 1874 to 1879 there were two Unions in Ireland. The Irish Football Union had jurisdiction over Clubs in Munster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught; the Northern Football Union of Ireland controlled parts of Ulster. They agree to select a number of players each for Ireland’s international fixtures. In 1874 a Coventry rugby fifteen comprising several members of Stoke Cricket Club played Allesley Park College at Allesley. This appears to have been the origin of the Coventry (Rugby) Football Club, with headquarters at Bull Fields, later the Butts. The Butts ground was lost in 1911 to a Northern Union club which did not survive the First World War, and the Coventry rugby club eventually moved to a new ground at Coundon in 1921.

From: 'The City of Coventry: Social history from 1700', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 8: The City of Coventry and Borough of Warwick (1969). On May 14, Harvard University hosted Montreal’s McGill University at Cambridge, Mass. In fact it was a series of three games. The first game was played to Harvard's rules using a round ball and Harvard won 3 goals to nil. The next day they played again to McGill's rules and used an oval ball, the game ended a scoreless draw. After this Harvard adopted largely the rugby rules and the third game of the series was played at McGill Uni. in the fall where Harvard won. Here is an extract from a very well written article produced by the Professional footballers researchers association Harvard-McGill: 1874 Harvard's funeral for Football Fightum turned out to be premature, to say the least. By 1871, only ten years after the burial, they were playing at Cambridge once more. The Boston Game, developed by the Oneidas, was favored by the Crimson for its class games. This, remember, was a combination of both soccer and rugby.

The emphasis seems to have been on kicking, but the ball could be caught and run if the catcher was pursued. That made it just different enough to cut off Harvard from competition with other schools, all of whom played the strict kicking game. When the invitation came to attend the 1873 meeting [meeting , Harvard had a tough decision to make: should they keep running by themselves or kick with the pack? They decided to stay home and keep running. Some people have called it the most momentous decision in the history of American football. Some people exaggerate. Football lends itself to hyperbole -- the greatest, the best, the most, etc. Harvard's decision was important. Let it go at that. The reason it was important is that Harvard began to look high and low for someone to play their precious Boston Game against. No other U.S. school would touch it. Finally, in the spring of 1874, McGill University of Montreal, Canada, issued a challenge to the Crimson. Captain Harry Grant happily accepted. It turned out Harvard got more than it bargained for. McGill agreed to come to Cambridge for a session of Boston Game if Harvard would then have a go at a game by McGill's rules.

McGill played rugby. The two teams met on May 14. Played under Harvard's rules, the game was such a rout they called it off after only 22 minutes with the home team in front 3-0. "Just wait until tomorrow when we play rugby!" warned the McGill men. The Harvard team laughed, but when the McGill players were out of earshot they asked each other nervously, "What's a rugby?" Years later, a member of the Harvard class of 1874 said, "There were many points of difference [in the Boston Game] from the Rugby game. It was eminently a kicking, as distinguished from a running and tackling, game. The rules ... existed only in tradition. We went to work to learn the Rugby game, but I should question if there were three men in college who had ever seen the egg-shaped ball. A drop kick was an unknown and incredible feat, and the intricacies of `off side,' `free kick,' `put out,' and such commonplaces of the game seemed inextricable mysteries to novices like us." The game played the next day, May 15, was the first rugby game on U.S. soil.

Harvard acquitted itself very well and struggled to a scoreless tie. More importantly, they fell head over heels in love with rugby and all thoughts of the once-cherished Boston Game disappeared. Harvard couldn't wait until the next fall. When it came, they raced up to Montreal to play some more rugby. In addition to kicked goals, the Canadian version of the game allowed touchdowns to count in the scoring. Harvard scored three of them to win. Flushed with success, the Crimson came home and, the next year, challenged Yale to a rugby match. The sons of Eli thought it over and decided it might be fun. The two schools scheduled a game for November 13, at Hamilton Park in New Haven, to be played under what were called the "Concessionary Rules". These had nothing to do with selling beer, hot dogs, or crackerjacks, but were instead a special set of rules agreed to in which each side gave up a little. Harvard sacrificed counting touchdowns in the scoring. The only thing a TD gained was the right to try for a goal. Yale agreed to play with 15 men instead of the eleven they preferred.

They had been won over to the smaller group two years earlier when they played soccer against a traveling team of eleven Englishmen from Eton. Yale found it made for a more open, exciting game. From then on they kept pushing for eleven on a side until everybody was sick to death from hearing about it. For Yale to agree to put four extra men on the field was a major concession and showed real sportsmanship. In their first rugby game, Yale's nice guys finished last. Harvard ran all over them, and the poor sons of Eli, knowing nothing about tackling, let them. The final stood 4-0 Harvard, with one of the goals coming after a touchdown. Despite the one-sided defeat, Yale was completely captivated by rugby. Forthwith, they decided, they would play it themselves. " Newport (Wales), Weston-super-Mare and Trojans formed. Universities reduced their sides from 20 to 15-a-side. Hamilton (New Zealand) adopted Rugby. Rugby first played in Cape town, South Africa. South RFU formed in NSW Australia.

Queen's College club, called "Cork", had played before, in 1872 was also formed in 1874. First governing body formed in Australia. NSWRU (The Southern RU). Of the original clubs which took part in the very first club competition of 1874, Sydney University, Balmain (now called Drummoyne), Newington College and The King's School are still in existence. Wellington, Somerset were founded by Harry Fox. Over the years several Wellington players were selected to play for England: Francis Hugh Fox ( 2 caps ) 1890 Percy John Ebdon ( 2 caps ) 1897 Reginald Forrest ( 5 caps ) 1899-1904 Herbert Temlett Gamlin "The Octopus" ( 15 caps ) 1899-1904 The United Hospitals instituted the oldest cup competition in the game of rugby. The United Hospitals Challenge Cup, also known as the Inter-Hospital Challenge Cup, is the oldest cup competition in the game of rugby.

The first final was played on Wednesday 3 March 1875 at The Oval between Guy's Hospital and St George's Hospital with Guy's winning by 1 Goal (a converted try) and 1 try to 2 tries. With the exception of breaks for the two world wars of the twentieth century, the United Hospitals Challenge Cup has been played for without interruption since that first final. 1875 Ballinasloe (Ireland) founded. Ballinasloe and Athlone amalgamated in 1994 to form Buccaneers. Pontypridd (Wales) & London Welsh formed. Mountain Ash, Wales founded. The first International between England and Ireland was watched by 3000 spectators on 15th February 1875. The teams were twenty a side and the Irish team included 12 players from Leinster and eight from Ulster. England won by 1 goal, 1 drop goal and a try to nil. The game had become established all over New Zealand and a team representing Auckland clubs undertook a two-week southern tour. Matches were played (and lost) against teams from Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson and Taranaki.

Matches were decided by the number of tries scored if both had the same number of goals. Rugby is introduced to South Africa by British troops garrisoned in Cape Town. Various clubs formed but Hamilton RFC probably has the strongest clain at being the first, disputed by Villagers RFC. 13 December - Oxford and Cambridge are the first to reduce their teams from 20 to 15-a-side. In the US Harvard played Yale with an oval ball and with 15 men a side and also saw the first uniforms worn in an American football game. Yale wore dark trousers, blue shirts, and yellow caps. Not to be outdone , Harvard showed up in crimson shirts, stockings, and knee breeches. Two fellows who watched the game were W. Earle Dodge and Jotham Potter, both of Princeton. They rushed back home singing rugby's praises to high heaven and to any Princetonians who would listen. So rugby was the up and coming game on at least three American college campuses. 1875-6 From 1875 many matches were played as 15-a-side but the alignments varied a good deal.

At that time there were ten forwards, two attacking half-backs, and three backs who were largely defensive. A major change was to move up a defensive back to play with the half-backs (this was the first three-quarter). 1876 London Scottish, Abervon, Cardiff, Bedford Football and Athletics Club (who changed their name in 1878 to Bedford Rovers) and Saracens formed. Players in international teams reduced from twenty to fifteen. In the US various colleges met to form an intercollegiate football association they adopted the makeshift rugby game which was played at that time but this organization was disbanded in 1895. Walter Camp enrolled at Yale the same year. First rugby game at Lansdowne Road . First game between the Royal Military Academy (RMA) Woolwich and the Royal Military College (as it was then) Sandhurst (Woolwich won). 1877 The first fifteen a side international match between Ireland and England on February 5th at the Oval. England wins by 2 goals & 2 tries to nil. England then played Scotland on March 5th at Raeburn place. The Calcutta cup presented to the RFU. Melrose RFC founded.

Scotland's HH Johnson is the first to play as a single full-back. On 1 May 1877, a meeting at 'Ship Inn' saw the foundation of Newcastle Football Club, NSW, Australia. Also in 1887 saw Wallsend and Maitland Clubs being formed. 1878 At Cardiff, Wales, they developed a short pass to one of the half backs who would then go charging ahead with the ball. He became known as the flying half back which over time got shortened to the fly half. The first recorded rugby match under floodlights took place when Broughton played Swinton on 22nd October 1878 at Broughton's Yew Street ground in Salford, Greater Manchester. Two Gramme's lights were used suspended from 30 foot poles. "At the call of "no side" the score stood at; Broughton two-goals, three tries, three touchdowns; Swinton, nil. C.Sawyer kicked one of the goals from the field of play. Mudie the other from a fine try by J.Sawyer, while the three unsuccessful tries were secured by Riley, A.Bowam and Shut".

"Probably 8,000 to 10,000 persons were present when the time for kick-off arrived." The above quotations are taken from the Salford Weekly News dated the 2nd November 1878. Another match took place in Liverpool later that month and the practice became very popular as the electric companies attempted to overturn the gas companies monopoly. In November a white ball was used in a match staged at Old Deer Park between Surrey & Middlesex. Surrey won the match which was enlightened by four lamps driven by a couple of Siemens electro-dynamo machines. Lansdowne Road , Dublin, held its first international rugby fixture, Ireland vs. England (15-a-side). The the Yorkshire Challenge Cup competition was founded (now known as the Yorkshire Cup), the first knock-out competition in the UK. It was open to all clubs in the Yorkshire area . The proceeds from the final were distributed among local charities. In the first season, 16 teams competed for the T'owd Tin Pot, with Halifax beating York in the final by1 goal, 1 try and 9 minor points to nil. Results Bridgend, Wales formed. The first Army vs.

Navy game was played February 13th, 1878 at the Kennington Oval in England but the match fell into abeyance until resuscitated in 1906/7. The Navy won the game by a goal and a try to a goal. The Corps of Royal Engineers had started a football club in 1870 playing FA rules but in 1878 they played their first recorded rugby game against Royal Military Academy (RMA) ('The shop') played at Chatham on October 24th and resulted in a draw, the Academy scoring 1 try, four touches against 1 try. This was the only annual fixture played under rugby rules until 1885. 1878/9 Mr G. A. J. Rothney, one of the founder members of the Calcutta club brought the Calcutta cup over to England. The Calcutta cup was presented to the RFU to be awarded for the winner of the annual England Scotland international. The trophy originated in India.

The Calcutta football club which had been started by former students of rugby school 4 years earlier had been wound up and the remaining rupees in the club's funds were melted down to be re-worked into the trophy. 1879 Rosslyn Park, Ipswich, Penarth (Wales) and Ebbw Vale (Wales) formed. From 1874 to 1879 there were two Unions. The Irish Football Union had jurisdiction over Clubs in Leinster, Munster and parts of Ulster; the Northern Football Union of Ireland controlled the Belfast area. The two Irish Unions agreed to amalgamate and become the Irish Rugby Football Union on the following terms: (i) A Union to be known as the Irish Rugby Football Union was to be formed for the whole country. (ii) Branches were to be formed in Leinster, Munster and Ulster. (iii) The Union was to be run by a Council of eighteen, made up of six from each province. The Council was to meet annually.

The Council of the Union still meets annually, but the day to day affairs are managed by a Committee comprising a President, two Vice-Presidents, the immediate Past President, the Honorary Treasurer and nineteen members. Extracts from Charles Dickens (jr) - A dictionary of London: "Football is by far the most popular out-door game of the winter months.

The Association matches have 11 players, the Union 15 players on each side The leading Union clubs in London and the suburbs are Blackheath, head-quarters, Richardson’s field, Blackheath; Richmond, Richmond Old Deer-pk; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; Royal Naval College, Greenwich-park; Wimbledon, Wimbledon-common; Clapham Rovers, Wandsworth; West Kent, Chislehurst; Queen’s House, and Clevedon, Blackheath; Flamingoes, Battersea-park; Gipsies, Peckham; Guys Hospital, Blackheath; King’s College, Battersea-park; Lausanne, Dulwich; Old Cheltonians, Mitcham; Old Marlburians, Blackheath; Walthamstow, Walthamstow; Wasps Putney." The first floodlit game of rugby played in Scotland at Hawick in their local derby vs. Melrose, whom they defeated by a goal to nil, attracted a healthy crowd of 5000 and a gate of 63 pounds sterling (as there was only one gate man present, many poured into the ground through a hole in the fence. (see also 1878).

The first unions in New Zealand were formed in Canterbury and Wellington. 10 March – 1st Calcutta Cup match ends in a draw. Soccer History Timeline King James I of Scotland also passed a law banning the game 1500 In Italy they played a game called " calcio " with teams of 27+ people. The game involved kicking, carrying or passing a ball across a goal line. In 1580, Giovanni Bardi published a set of rules of the game of calcio. 1572 Queen Elizabeth I of England, enacted laws that could sentence a football player to jail for a week followed by penance in a church. 1600 In Alaska and Canada the native Eskimos played a game called aqsaqtuk on ice, using balls stuffed with grass, caribou hair, and moss. One legend tells of two villages playing against each other with goals 10 miles apart.

1605 Football became legal again in England 1620 In North America, native American Indians in the original Jamestown settlement played a game called pasuckuakohowog, meaning "they gather to play ball with the foot." It was a rough game, played the beach, the field a half-mile wide with goals 1 mile apart, with as many as 1000 players at a time. 1815 Eton College of England established a set of rules for the games. 1820 In the USA, football was played among the Northeastern universities and colleges of Harvard, Princeton, Amherst and Brown. 1848 The rules were further standardized and a new version was adopted by all the schools, college and universities, known as the Cambridge Rules. 1862 The first soccer club formed anywhere outside of England was the Oneida Football Club, Boston USA. 1863 October 26 of 1863, the Football Association was formed when eleven London schools and clubs came together at the Freemason's Tavern to establish a single set of rules to administer any football match that were to be played among them.

On December 8 1863, Association Football and Rugby Football finally split onto two different organizations. Later in the year, the first ever soccer match was played on Barnes common at Mortlake, London on 19th December 1863 between Barnes Football Club and Richmond Football Club. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. 1869 The Football Association rules were further amended to exclude any handling of the ball. 1872 The first official international football match was played, between the national teams of Scotland and England, played in Glasgow Scotland. The game was played on 30 November 1872, and finished with a 0-0 draw. 1883 The four British associations agreed on a uniform code and formed the International Football Association Board. 1885 The first international match played by teams outside of Great Britain was between USA and Canada, played in Newark and ended with Canada winning 1-0. 1888 Introduction of the penalty kick.

1900 Soccer played at the Olympic Games for the first time 1904 Establishment of FIFA by delegates from France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland at a meeting in Paris on the 21st of May. 1930 In 1930, The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) held soccer's first World Cup tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay, with 13 teams. 1932 Soccer was taken off the program for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, due to a controversy between FIFA and the IOC over the definition of amateur and the reluctance of many strong soccer countries to travel the US because of the expense involved. 1991 The inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991 in China was won by the United States 1996 International Football International Football International Football Charles W. Alcock , the secretary of the Football Association , and Arthur Kinnaird , his friend from Cambridge University , who had been born in Scotland , arranged the first international football game to be played on the 30th November, 1872. Alcock took a team of English born players to play against a team from Scotland .

The match, played in Glasgow , ended in a 0-0 draw. The main objective was to publicize the game of football in Scotland. It had the desired effect and the following year the Scottish Football Association was formed and the England-Scotland match became an annual fixture. England against Scotland in 1877. In 1876 Wales established its own Football Association. Later that year Wales played Scotland. The more experienced Scottish side won 4-0. The Irish Football Association was formed in 1880. They played their first game in 1882 when they were beaten 13-0 by England. The following year the British International Championship was established. Each country met the other three over the course of the season. Scotland won the initial championship by beating England (1-0), Wales (4-1) and Ireland (5-0). The following season Scotland scored 8 against both Wales and Ireland. However, they could only manage a 1-1 draw against England. James Forrest won his first international cap for England against Wales on 17th March, 1884. The following year he was selected to play against Scotland .

Scottish officials complained as they argued that Forrest was a professional. At the time he was receiving £1 a week from Blackburn Rovers . Forrest was eventually allowed to play but he had to wear a different jersey from the rest of the team. Over the next few years international sides contained more and more professional players. It was another sign of the decline in amateur football. Over the next few years, Scotland and England dominated the British International Championship. It was not until Ireland was involved in a three-way tie in 1902-03 that there were signs of a shift in power. Leigh Roose was captain of the Welsh team that played in the game against Ireland at Wrexham in March, 1906. The match was filmed by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon (included in Edwardian Sports ). Approximately two-and-a-half minutes of the footage survives today and it is believed to be the oldest anywhere in the world featuring an international football match. The Welsh team walking out against Ireland (March, 1906) In 1907 the Welsh team beat Ireland (3-2) and Scotland (1-0). They clinched their first Home Nations Championship with a 1-1 draw with England .

Billy Meredith and the goalkeeper Leigh Roose , were outstanding in these games. This was a fantastic achievement as in none of the three games had Wales managed to field the side originally selected. The main reason for this was that Football League clubs often refused to allow Welsh players to represent their country in international fixtures. As Meredith pointed out: "In those days, Wales was never really sure of a first team and there used to be a sigh of relief when the party trickled up in twos or threes. Reserves were usually standing by, but a reserve goalkeeper was not thought of when Dick (Leigh) Roose was holding down the position." The Welsh team that played against England on 18th March, 1901. Leigh Roose is wearing the goalkeeper's jersey. The captain, Billy Meredith is holding the ball. After the First World War , Scotland emerged as the leading football power in Britain. Their chief rivals were Wales who won the championship six times between 1920 and 1937. Billy Walker scores for England against Scotland in 1924. Although England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland played in friendlies against foreign opponents, no British teams took part in the first three World Cups .

The England team that played against Wales in October 1941. Back row left The Game of Football - Victorian Britain - Football History - 1872-77 - Gravesham Trophy Centre & The Crystal Glass Engraver View our Online Shop The Game of Football - Victorian Britain - Football History - 1872-77 The Game of Football was changing. In 1872, the FA decided that they would rule on the dimensions of a Football. It was to be completely spherical and with a circumference of 26 ¾” (68 cm), it had to be encased in Leather and weigh between 14 – 16oz (396 – 453 grams) at the start of the game. The Encyclopaedia of British Football states "On wet days the ball grew increasingly heavy as the leather soaked up large amounts of liquid. This, together with the lacing that protected the valve of the bladder, made heading the ball not only unpleasant but also painful and dangerous".

Archibald (Archie) Hunter, who was brought up playing football in Scotland in the 1860’s, moved down to England, to play for Aston Villa FC in 1878. He and the Captain, George Ramsay, played the game passing the ball between them, while the English game was centred around a player ‘dribbling’ for as long as he could. Archie and George became almost invincible and took Aston Villa FC into the FA Challenge Cup in 1879-80. The following season they won both that competition and the Staffordshire Cup. In 1890, Archie fell at a game against Everton FC, suffering a heart attack. He died 4 years later from heart disease, aged just 35. FA Cup, introduced 1871 In 1870, the FA introduced 11 a side games, with the additional position of goal-keeper. The FA Challenge Cup, introduced in 1871, was mostly only played by London clubs, due to the cost of travelling to London to play.That, and the 1 guinea cost of entering.

Charles W Alcock, the secretary of the FA stated "What was ten or fifteen years ago the recreation of a few has now become the pursuit of thousands. An athletic exercise carried on, under a strict system and in many cases by an enforced term of training, almost magnified into a profession". In 1871, the FA introduced umpires and a neutral referee. Each side could appoint an umpire who players could appeal to. But the new FA rule also stated: "Any point on which the umpires cannot agree shall be decided by the referee". In 1872, The FA again updated their Rules of Football, by updating their Set of Laws and clarifying the position of goal-keeper "a goal shall be won when the ball passes between the goal posts under the tape, not being thrown, knocked on, or carried".and "A player shall not throw the ball nor pass it to another except in the case of the goalkeeper, who shall be allowed to use his hands for the protection of his goal... No player shall carry or knock on the ball; nor shall any player handle the ball under any pretence whatever".

"The [representative] International Football Match" of February 24th 1872 England v. Scotland match. The English Rose is visible on the white shirt. The background shows the distinctive gasometer of The Oval Representative international matches had been played between Scotland and England between 1870 and 72, but on 30th November 1872, the first ever official 'international' football match was played between Scotland and England in Partick, Scotland. Watched by over 4,000 spectators, it was a goalless draw. Players wore 'knickerbockers' (long pants) and bobble hats or caps. The hats / caps were part of the 'team strip' until well into the 1900's. Again in 1872, approximately 50 clubs belonged to the FA. The furthest from London was in York. A rival to the FA, the Sheffield Association, played by a different set of rules altogether. However, in 1877, the Sheffield Clubs joined the FA, swelling their numbers to almost 130.

Question: In 1872, which country played England in the first ever international game of football?
Answer: Scotland